Archive for the month “December, 2011”

I know the ladies will get this and the fellas can appreciate the analogy since we all want our ladies (bikes and rods for some of us..lol) to have radiant, healthy looking and beautiful skin (paint), therefore consider this. The same process it takes to keep your skin looking young, vibrant and healthy, is very similar to the attention and care required to maintain the smooth, deep and lustrous shine of your car’s exterior.

Paint, like skin, covers and protects the body of your automobile. It keep’s the elements from getting to the metal underneath and causing damage, like rust and corrosion. Paint also adds to the car’s aesthetics and when it’s well kept, it enhances the appeal and protects the value of your investment.

As with the 4 basic skincare needs that include; cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize and protect, paint-care needs are similar. The steps include; wash, clay, polish and protect.

STEP 4 (The Final Step): ProtectionMany car owners are not aware of or they underestimate the importance of waxing their automobiles. If you were planning for a sunny day at the beach, one of the first things you would do is apply sun screen to shield and protect your skin against the harmful UV rays that can burn, wrinkle and cause other forms of damage to your skin over a period of long term exposure. Your vehicles paint goes through a daily assault of weather conditions, including rain, snow, wind, and of course the sun. Coating your car, truck or SUV with quality wax or sealant will help protect it. Also remember, it’s the things you don’t see that get’s imbedded in your car’s paint, like tar, bugs, industrial fall and other contaminants. If left unchecked the unprotected paint will eventually fade, crack and or chip.

Have some pride and protect your ride with wax or a synthetic sealant to keep your whip appealing for as long as possible. It will add up to more dollars and cents when you get to a point in the future when you want to trade or sell.

Remember, you made the investment when you purchased your vehicle, if you do not maintain the appearance it will cost you dearly in the long run!

I know the ladies will get this and the fellas can appreciate the analogy since we all want our ladies (bikes and rods for some of us..lol) to have radiant, healthy looking and beautiful skin (paint), therefore consider this. The same process it takes to keep your skin looking young, vibrant and healthy, is very similar to the attention and care required to maintain the smooth, deep and lustrous shine of your car’s exterior.

Paint, like skin, covers and protects the body of your automobile. It keep’s the elements from getting to the metal underneath and causing damage, like rust and corrosion. Paint also adds to the car’s aesthetics and when it’s well kept, it enhances the appeal and protects the value of your investment.

As with the 4 basic skincare needs that include; cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize and protect, paint-care needs are similar. The steps include; wash, clay, polish and protect.

STEP 3: Polishing
Polishing is the step in the detailing process that yields the most dramatic difference in your paint. The objective of polishing is to remove imperfections in the paint, such as swirls, scratches, water spots, etchings, and oxidation. Having these imperfections in your paint means that light that passes through gets refracted, ultimately dulling the finish, yielding less gloss and depth, less reflections, and can turn into an eye sore. When these imperfections are removed, your paint will have the highest level of gloss and reflections are mirror like, with sharp accurate detail.

The tool used in the polishing process can either be a rotary or orbital polisher. The rotary polisher should only be used by a professional! In the hands of a novice or inexperienced user, you can very easily burn through the paint and end up causing more damage than good.

If you are a novice or weekend detail warrior, the orbital polisher will better suit your needs. Do your research to determine needs and your budget, there are several brands and models to chose from.

I know the ladies will get this and the fellas can appreciate the analogy since we all want our ladies (bikes and rods for some of us..lol) to have radiant, healthy looking and beautiful skin (paint), therefore consider this. The same process it takes to keep your skin looking young, vibrant and healthy, is very similar to the attention and care required to maintain the smooth, deep and lustrous shine of your car’s exterior.

Paint, like skin, covers and protects the body of your automobile. It keep’s the elements from getting to the metal underneath and causing damage, like rust and corrosion. Paint also adds to the car’s aesthetics and when it’s well kept, it enhances the appeal and protects the value of your investment.

As with the 4 basic skincare needs that include; cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize and protect, paint-care needs are similar. The steps include; wash, clay, polish and protect.

STEP 2: Claying

Similar to the idea of exfoliation, claying the car scrubs off all the harmful stuff that causes damage to your paint. Clay removes all the contaminants you may not see but can defiantly feel like, industrial fallout, rail dust and brake dust. Although these contaminants are almost invisible to the naked eye, if you rub your hands across the hood, roof and trunk of your car, you can feel the roughness and grittiness of the paint. If left to accumulate and buildup, over time your paint will appear dull, even after waxing. Once the contaminants oxidize, they create rust spots within the paint. When this happens, the oxidation is far more difficult to remove and could take a good bit of paint with it in the process.

To help determine if your vehicle needs claying, once you have washed the exterior, take a plastic grocery bag and stick one hand in it and rub gently across the hood of your vehicle. If it feels rough and gritty to the touch as you gently slide your fingers across the surface, it may need to be clayed.

I know the ladies will get this and the fellas can appreciate the analogy since we all want our ladies (bikes and rods for some of us..lol) to have radiant, healthy looking and beautiful skin (paint), therefore consider this. The same process it takes to keep your skin looking young, vibrant and healthy, is very similar to the attention and care required to maintain the smooth, deep and lustrous shine of your car’s exterior.

Paint, like skin, covers and protects the body of your automobile. It keep’s the elements from getting to the metal underneath and causing damage, like rust and corrosion. Paint also adds to the car’s aesthetics and when it’s well kept, it enhances the appeal and protects the value of your investment.

As with the 4 basic skincare needs that include; cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize and protect, paint-care needs are similar. The steps include; wash, clay, polish and protect.

Step 1: Washing Your Vehicle

Washing your vehicle is the first step in the overall appearance maintenance of your vehicle. Washing the car is fundamental and it’s during this process that all surface dirt is loosened and removed from the exterior of your automobile. Washing your car, prepares the vehicle for the remaining steps in the detailing process. Although a proper and thorough car wash is one of the most basic steps to protect your cars appearance, washing alone is not enough. Further more, improper washing can do more harm than good, therefore using the right tools and techniques are critical during this step.

The hand wash, two bucket system will yield great results during this step in the process. There are several alternative methods to consider as well when it comes to cleaning the exterior. Vapor steam and no rinse washing are two additional methods I use depending on the condition of the vehicle at this point in the process.

You made and investment when you purchased your automobile. Like any other investment, your desire is that it maintain its worth. When the time does come to sell or trade in your automobile, you want to receive the greatest value possible. Inertia however, is the greatest enemy to your automobile and your pocket book.

Neglect of your cars appearance is the swiftest way to diminish its value and can cost you more money up front to get it back to a cosmetically maintainable condition or, it will cause you to leave money on the table on the backend when you decide to upgrade to your next vehicle. The problem with neglect includes contaimanent buildup or careless car washing, both can damage your cars paint and its over all shine and luster.

When industrial emissions and fallout are deposited on your car and dries, it eats the paint. Acid from bugs, bird droppings and tree sap will cause permanent stains when left on your car. Careless car washing can also leave the paint in worse condition than when you started.

Dish soap, laundry soap and household cleaners are too harsh to use on car’s paint and can dull the finish. Using the wrong towels and cloths can leave hairline scratches. Even automatic car washes can do damage.

Self serve car washes and touch-less washes use very concentrated chemicals, pre-soaks and degreasers that will wash away some of the protection on your paint and diminish the shine. Don’t wash the value of your car down the drain!

Subscribe and stay plugged in to this blog for proper car care information, techniques, tips and best practices to keep your whip looking sweet and turning heads.

Times are tight these days and many people are looking for ways to save and cut back. When everything needs to get done and is priority, how do you find ways to reduce your spending in the area of car care? Some folks are taking on the task of detailing their own autos temporarily until things turn around economically.

If you are one of those individuals, car care and up keep is still very essential to preserve the value of your vehicle. Although the finished product may vary depending on your skill level and passion to maintain the car care regiment, here are 11 detail secrets you may want to consider if you are taking on the task.

You have spent countless hours and have poured buckets of money into building your rod or bike. Now that you are ready to pull it out for Sunday cruising, local parking lot gatherings and shows or bike rides, here are the top 10 must follow sites to keep your ride (Whip) looking sweet!

Many of these sites offer instructional videos, training manuals and auto appearance tips in addition to the best detail grade products on the net. Start following these sites today to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest in car care!

Also keep in mind, if the appearance maintenance part of your custom cruiser is more of a chore than labor of love you can always consider hiring an auto detail specialist. If you are in Houston, consider TheGlossBoss.Com for all your auto appearance needs.

Detailed Image is run by it’s owners and we operate the business with uncompromising integrity and honesty. We shop online for ourselves and we like to treat our customers the same way we like to be treated while shopping online. We never share your information with third parties and we have the utmost respect for the privacy of your personal information. While shopping with us our goal is to provide you with the highest quality products to meet and exceed your detailing goals at a great value.

Chemical Guys is your ONE STOP SHOP for all of your detailing needs! Looking to start a business? Chemical Guys sell everything Factory Direct so you save Money and GET THE RIGHT ADVICE TO HELP YOU GET STARTED. If you re starting a detailing or car wash business, and looking to add new services to increase your income or expand an existing business or simply considering a new and extremely profitable career in the car care field, Chemical Guys is your one-stop factory direct stop for products, hands-on detail training, auto detailing seminars, product training and support

Don’t expect fancy packaging…it isn’t needed. Do expect ease of use, fast results and an amazing shine. Isn’t that what we all want anyway? Poorboy’s World Detailing Products sell because people simply love them! These are all American products, proudly made in the U.S.A. A favorite at car shows, Poorboy’s might become one of your favorites too. We’ve talked to thousands of car enthusiasts, listened to their concerns and needs, and developed a line of very unique detailing products. Our products are EASY ON/EASY OFF, SUN or SHADE, and have the right amount of cleaners and protectants to leave an easy-to-maintain vehicle.

Detail King is the Choice of Champions! We have the experience, the knowledge and the passion to provide all of our customers the very best car care products at affordable pricing. We have been doing this since 1999 and have over 20,000 satisfied customers located all over the globe. Be the “King of Detailing” in your home town and allow Detail King to show you the way!

Griot’s Garage started out, quite conveniently, in my garage back in 1988. Being frustrated at the lack of high quality products to set up the perfect garage, whether that included the finest car care to take care of my vehicles, or a concrete floor paint that didn’t lift up when you drove over it, no one was offering it. Two years went by and I said, “I can’t believe no one else is entering this market! Everyone seems to be excluding the guy that eats, sleeps and squanders his hard earned cash on cars… and there is no one there to offer high quality products to fan the flames of his passion!!! So here we were, selling everything an automotive enthusiast would want and items that they didn’t even know existed!

Rightlook.com was founded in 1998 with the dream of improving the automotive reconditioning and appearance industry by helping others to launch and grow successful businesses. Since that time, Rightlook.com has set the standard for professional auto reconditioning and auto appearance, offering the highest quality training, equipment, supplies, business consulting and marketing services in the industry. Auto appearance professionals world-wide look to Rightlook.com for state of the art systems and comprehensive training.

Thank you for choosing Autopia Car Care for your car detailing supply needs. Your car care needs are important to us and we strive to only provide the finest in car detaining products available. We realize your time, money and end results are important to you and our goal is to exceed your expectations! We suggest that you CONSIDER INVESTING IN THE FUTURE of your vehicle and protect your investment with the best car detailing products available. We guarantee your satisfaction and stand behind every product we sell!

Welcome to Perfection Car Care Products & the Detail Supply Outlet, located in America’s Finest City; San Diego, California, where clean cars are the standard. The Detail Supply Outlet was started by the owner Eddie Belter in 1995. Designed to educate and provide you with all of your Auto Detailing Products, Car Care Supplies and Auto Detailing Equipment, along with our Detail Technical Support Center. After years of testing products by hand in our Detailing service center and being a Wholesale Distributor, we have put together the combination of the finest and most complete line of Auto Beauty and Appearance products to be made available for you, the Customer.

Ok, this blog I admit will be a stretch, but stick with me and in the end you will learn the practical lessons revealed by these figurative and imaginery stories. Before I get into the fairy tale let me share a true personal story to set the stage.

My enthusiasm for cars started many years back around the time I got my first vehicle at age 16. I remember spending many hours on the weekend getting my s10 blazer (Blaze-N as it was known) prepared for the sunday cruise down MLK blvd to a local car hangout spot, McGreggor park in Houston, TX. I was a part of a mini truck club back then called Lower Elevation and me and a few of the club members would get our trucks all shined up, fall in line and cruise out to the spot to see and be seen.

Back then we knew our vehicles had to be clean and tricked out if we were going to turn heads and break out of the clutter, I mean the competition was fierce. You had guys cruising in to the park from all sides of Houston to show off their rides. Sure, we wanted to get the respect of the other cruisers but really, when I think about those days and why we poured so much of our after school and summer job money into our vehicles, spent countless hours customizing and shining them up and burned through tank after tank of gas to roll around the city with no particular destination, it was all for the females. You see, if you spotted a young lady that you wanted to talk to and you rolled up in a clean ride, chances were pretty good you would leave with the phone number. Back then, we were trying to collect as many numbers as possible. Now lets introduce the imaginary tale of Cinderella and the story of the Knight In Shinning Armour.

Let’s start with the Knight. Every young girl has this fascination of finding her Knight in shinning armour. The story originates back to the tale of a gallant knight who would ride to the rescue of his fair maiden. He would save the day and they would ride off into the sunset right? Then you have the story of Cinderella, who was a lowly young girl that had step sisters. The step sisters got the best of everything while Cinderella only got the left overs and hand me downs. With the help of the fairy god-mother however, she gets to go to the royal ball with the chance to meet the Prince. To increase her odds of being noticed, the fairy god-mother turns a pumpin and mice into this royal shinny carriage for Cinderella to roll up in…still with me?

What does all this have to do with car care and the importance there of you ask? Well, what brought all this on was the fact that I recently did some research to discover when car owners first began waxing their vehicles for shine and protection and also on what type of vehicle was wax first used. What I found is this. Automotive wax and the process of waxing a vehicle to shine and protect the paint dates back to the age of horse drawn carriages (Whips). The owners of the carriages would use wax to protect the paint on those carriages because back then the paint came at a premium. You can read the full article here on the Automotive Finishing site (http://www.afonline.com/automotive_wax/). This is where my “Aha” moment came!

You see, my wife is a singer and stage play performer and happens to be performing in the musical of Cinderella. During the carriage scene when the fairy god-mother turned the pumpkin into this shiny carriage, all the previously discussed topics above hit me at once and I had a nice laugh to myself. So here are some conclusions I came to for laughs.

1. Cinderella, or the fairy god-mother at least, understood the importance of standing out and looking your very best when you roll up on the scene, even before you enter the ball. Pulling up in the shiny carriage was tactical. This would get the folks to talking and perhaps all the hooplah would reach the ear of the prince and he would want to find out who is this Cinderella that came rolling up to the royal ball in this shiny, tricked out carriage. This strategy seemed to work pretty good for us back in the days of McGreggor park…lol.

2. Why did the knight have to be in “shinning armour”? Again, because he knew that if he rolled up on the dame in distress in a dull dingy carriage, she would very well just take her chances and wait for the next cat to roll up. By the way, I dont believe the shinny armour mentioned in the story was battle gear, I think it was a tricked out carriage that would in today’s world resemble the “knight rider shelby mustang” image below. The knight knew he had to stand out from the moment he pulled up to successfully take the damsel off the market, so he came with his A game. He left nothing to chance including how shiny and polished his carriage was looking when he rolled up. After all, he was trying to win over the damsel in distress right?

Now even if this blog was a stretch, realistically we can all agree on 3 things:

1. Your vehicle is an extention of you! when you walked on the lot to pick out your ride, you did not pick out the dirty less appealing vehicle in the back, you picked out the one that was sparkling in whatever color you desired and you imagined yourself rolling around town behind the wheel. Why not keep it looking it’s very best with a consistent automobile detail regiment? Rolling around in a clean and nice looking ride sure makes paying the note easier vs. riding around in one that is an eye sore to you and everyone else and on top of that you are still making payments. Take pride in your ride, preserve it’s appearance.

2. Automobiles are not cheap, you made the investment when you purchased it. Protect the value of your ride like the carriage makers did back when paint was at a premium. Have you considered the cost of having to repaint your vehicle? Believe me it is not cheap! Also, even if you decide to trade it in or sell it used to upgrade to a new vehicle, you will lose money on the deal because appearance is everything. If your vehicle appears to be well maintained and look good, you will get more on the tade in. If you are selling it as a used vehicle, if it looks nice it will sell faster and for more money than one that looks neglected.

3. Finally, you simply feel better when you are behind the wheel of an uncluttered, clean and shiny vehicle and it does not hurt when people notice and compliment you on your ride.

These are the secrets learned from Cinderella and the Knight in Shinning Armour.

Considering I have former ties to Hip-Hop and Urban Music, I have often heard custom cars and motorcycles referred to as “Whips”, but curiousity led me to dig further to see if I could officially connect the dots as to where the term originated. As I begin to search for answers it led me to this definition that I believe explains it best and ties it all together. It also implies that the term “whip” did not originate in the hip-hop culture however, it was hip-hop music that embraced the term, made it cool and gave it a greater degree of exposure to the main stream. Here is the definition of “Whip” below.

(def) Whip: When the steering wheel was first put into use in automobiles, it was called the “whip”. The whip is what you used to control the horses on a stagecoach, hence the analogy. Many years later, various hip hop artists noticed that the Mercedes-Benz logo resembled a steering wheel. They then proceeded to use the old term “whip” to describe any Mercedes-Benz vehicle. The term has now been generalized to classify any expensive automobile. (end of definition)

Speaking of whips, how would you have like to have owned one like the image in the blog back in the day? Definitely a Cool Whip, would’nt you say?

Fans get an exclusive first look at the creation of the midnight carriage from ‘City of Bones.’ Credit: Sony Pictures.

Dont know anything about the movie and I actually found the image while doing my research on whips and thought I would share because I thought the whip was nice!

Next I will share how all this ties in with waxing your automobile to keep it looking it’s very best. It’s pretty interesting and between these two posts you will begin to understand why I chose “Whip Appeal” as the title of my blog.